hat companionship and conscientious
parenthood are the only true grounds for marriage, if the relation
brings out the worst characteristics of each party, or if the home
atmosphere is unwholesome for children, is not the very _raison
d'etre_ of the union wanting, and the marriage practically
annulled? It cannot be called a holy relation,--no, not a desirable
one,--when love and mutual respect are wanting. And let us bear in
mind one other important fact: the lack of sympathy and content in
the parents indicates radical physical unsuitability, which
results in badly organized offspring. If, then, the real object of
marriage is defeated, it is for the interest of the State, as well
as the individual concerned, to see that all such pernicious unions
be legally dissolved. Inasmuch, then, as incompatibility of temper
defeats the two great objects of marriage, it should be the primal
cause for divorce.

"The true standpoint from which to view this question is individual
sovereignty, individual happiness. It is often said that the
interests of society are paramount, and first to be considered.
This was the Roman idea, the Pagan idea, that the individual was
made for the State. The central idea of barbarism has ever been the
family, the tribe, the nation--never the individual. But the great
doctrine of Christianity is the right of individual conscience and
judgment. The reason it took such a hold on the hearts of the
people was because it taught that the individual was primary; the
State, the Church, society, the family, secondary. However, a
comprehensive view of any question of human interest, shows that
the highest good and happiness of the individual and society lie in
the same direction.

"The question of divorce, like marriage, should be settled, as to
its most sacred relations, by the parties themselves; neither the
State nor the Church having any right to intermeddle therein. As to
property and children, it must be viewed and regulated as a civil
contract. Then the union should be dissolved with at least as much
deliberation and publicity as it was formed. There might be some
ceremony and witnesses to add to the dignity and solemnity of the
occasion. Like the Quaker marriage, which the parties conduct
themselves, so, in this case, without any